Summary
Santa Fe Unit School is a PK–12 alternative/unit school in rural Maury County, Tennessee, serving 553 students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade on a single campus. As one of Maury County Schools' "unit schools," it combines elementary, middle, and high school grades in one small community setting. Overall, the school presents a mixed but encouraging profile: strong middle school performance, excellent attendance, and above-district proficiency in most subjects.
Where Santa Fe really shines is in middle school. Eighth-grade math proficiency (63.9%) is more than double the district average (29.7%), and 8th-grade science and social studies also far surpass district and state averages. The school beats both Maury County Schools and the Tennessee state average in 7 of 10 all-grades subjects, including Geometry (56.4% vs. 30.6% district), English II (68.3% vs. 49.5% district), and Social Studies (62.0% vs. 43.3% district). Compared with nearby unit schools, Santa Fe outperforms Culleoka Unit School in 8 of 10 subjects and beats Hampshire Unit School in English II, Geometry, overall Science, and Social Studies — with the Geometry gap especially stark at 56.4% versus 12.3%. All-grades math proficiency has climbed from 33.9% to 46.0% over four years.
Not everything is a bright spot. Early-elementary math lags behind state averages in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades, and advanced algebra is a persistent gap: Algebra II proficiency is 22.2% versus the state's 37.3%. The 2024–2025 graduation rate of 88.6% also trails both the state (90.5%) and Culleoka Unit School (96.0%), and the dropout rate of 9.1% is above district and state levels. Attendance, however, is excellent: only 12.6% of students are chronically absent, lower than every nearby school and well below the district's 17.8%. With a student–teacher ratio of 12.9 and per-student spending of $13,487, Santa Fe produces strong outcomes without outspending its peers. Overall, the school has clear bright spots in the middle grades, meaningful advantages over nearby unit schools, and targeted improvement opportunities in early math, advanced algebra, and graduation.
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